Method of recovering together the metal values contained in slags and mine-waters.



' PATENTED JAN. 3, 1905.

R. BAGGALEY. METHOD OF REGOVERING TOGETHER THE METAL VALUES CONTAINED IN SLAGS AND MINE WATERS.

L T E B H J S T E E H B 3 if v.

No. 779,252. PATENTED JAN. 3, 1905. I R. BAGGALEY. METHOD OF RBGOVBRING TOGETHER THE METAL VALUES CONTAINED IN SLAGS AND MINE WATERS.

APPLIOATION FILED APR. 18, 1904.

a SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSIS jaw-MM INVENTOR N0. 779,252. I PATENTED JAN. 3, 1905. R. BAGGALEY. METHOD OF REOOVERING TOGETHER THE METAL VALUES CONTAINED IN SLAGS AND MINE WATERS.

APPLIGATION FILED APR, 18, 1-904.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

mum F ,J I mvzu'ron Wfi wuw UNITED STATES Patented January 3, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

RALPH BAGGALEY, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD OF RECOVERING TOGETHER THE METAL VALUES CONTAINED IN SLAGS AND MINE-WATERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 779,252, dated January 3, 1905.

Application filed April 18, 1904. Serial No. 203,627.

To all whom it nuty concern:

Be it known that I, RALPH BAGGALEY, of Pittsburg, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Method of Recovering Together the Mineral Values Contained in Slags and Mine-Waters, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of apparatus suitable for the practice of my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation. Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are on a larger scale, Fig. 3 being a vertical section on the line III III of Fig. 1, Fig. A a sectional detail showing the outlet of the su p ply-tank, and Fig. 5 an elevation of the apparatus.

The object of my invention is to recover cheaply and automatically the copper held in solution in minewaters-as, for instance, those discharged from the mines in the Butte copper districtand simultaneously to recover the copper, gold, and silver values that exist in the copper-smelter slags commonly called in the trade foul slags.

In the Butte copper district it has been the practice to drain the mine-waters from several contiguous mines to one central point and then to pump them with a single pumping-engine to the surface. At one such plant now in operation over seven hundred gallons of water are discharged per minute, and at another eleven hundred gallons per minute are thus elevated. These waters were primarily meteoric waters which traveled from the surface downward through the fissures in the earths crust which contain the mineral veins and which having been broken and shifted form convenient channels and points of least resistance to the flow of the waters. These waters being charged with oxygen have leached copper from the veins and carry it in solution as copper sulfate, often in very con siderable proportion. It has been the practice in order to recover this copper partially to permit the water to flow through long Wooden troughs containing scrap-iron, which precipitates the copper in metallic form. This process has created a large demand in the mining districts for the scrap iron, steel,

tin cans, &c., that are gathered up daily by the city scavengers, and owing to this demand scrap has become scarce and costly. If one examines these precipitating-tanks, it will be noted that the volume of water flowing through them is very great when compared with the amount of scrap-iron precipitating material that is used and that the recovery of values is therefore imperfect, so much so that it has been estimated that twelve hundred dollars per day in metallic values are carried off by the water and are Wasted in the Butte district notwithstanding the efforts made to recover such values. Another thing that I have noted in this precipitating work is that where the waters fall or drop upon the scrap-iron a much greater recovery of the copper is accomplished than where the iron is submerged in the flowing water.

The object of my present invention, as above stated, is to make a much more complete recovery than heretofore of the copper values contained in mine-waters and simultaneously by the use of value-bearing iron produced from smelter-slags to recover values that may exist in such slags; but without departing from the invention as defined in my broad claims granulated iron that does not contain mineral values may be used for the purpose of recovering copper from the minewaters.

I utilize as the copper-precipitating material the cheap and readily-obtainable iron smelted from the ferruginous slag of coppersmelters, as fully described in an application filed by me on December 23, 1903, Serial No. 186,336. Instead of casting such iron into pigs I draw it from the separating-furnace and granulate it by pouring it in a molten condition into water. Being used as a precipitant in this granular form, it presents myriads of precipitating-faces for contact with the water.

I may use any of the usual forms of troughs, V-shape drip-boxes, or other devices; but I prefer to use the apparatus illustrated in the drawings, in which 2 is an overhead tank, preferably of wood, into which the mine-waters rich in copper are delivered. This tank discharges a series of small streams into a number of troughsfi 3, placed side by side, the streams being adJust able by cocks composed, preferably, of wooden stoppers 4., fitted with brass bolts 5 and adjusting-screws 6. The water first drops from the tank a few inches into the trough 8, which is filled several inches deep with the granulated iron containing copper, and after trickling approximately six feet through the trough the water drops again a few inches into another iron-filled trough 3, and so it continues dropping from one trough to another throughout the whole series of troughs constituting the rack, which may be approximately seventy feet high. mately, after having passed thus through, say, one hundred and forty troughs, each containing the granulated iron, into settlingtanks 7 7 arranged on the ground-level in pairs side by side, there being one pair for each set of troughs, so that the last trough in the series may be shifted as desired from one settling-tank to the other in order that the action of the apparatus may not be interrupted or delayed while the precipitants are being removed. By this apparatus substantially all of the copper contained in the mine-waters can be precipitated and recovered, owing to the enormous number of particles of granulated iron with which the water containing the copper in solution must come in contact. The corrosive action of this water on the granulated iron, especially because of its dropping and trickling action, will he very great, and the copper values contained in the granulated iron will be freed from the iron and will swell the volume of copper recovered by precipitation. The precipitated and liberated copper will be carriedby the trickling Water down through the troughs and will ultimately be deposited in the precipitatingtanks on the ground-level, and after the waters have thus deposited their contained values they may be allowed to flow into a large water-reservoir, from which they may be pumped and used in the smelter plant for granulating the slag or other purposes. As the granulated iron in the troughs is exhausted by reaction with the copper sulfate in the water the troughs are recharged with iron by a workman, who can get access to the troughs from platforms 8.

The advantages of my invention will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. When the granulated-iron precipitant is obtained from a smelter-slag which contains, for in-.

stance, one-half per cent. copper, forty-nine and one-half per cent. iron, and fifty per cent. silica, alumina, lime and other bases, a complete separation of the metals by the invention of my said application Serial No. 186,336 will yield an iron product whose metallic constituents will consist of ninety-nine per cent. iron I deliver it ulti' and one per cent. copper. Slags obtained in ordinary practice from copper-furnaces rarely contain so high a percentage of iron, and a more nearly average slag resulting from ordinary practice would contain nearly twothirds per cent. copper, thirty-three and onethird per cent. iron, and sixty-six per cent. silica and other bases. When the metals have been separated by smelting from such slag, as contemplated in my invention abovereferred to, the resulting metals would consist of approximately ninety-eight per cent. iron and two per cent. copper, or, in other words, each ton of the granulated-metal product would contain forty pounds of copper. It will therefore be seen that the saving which I effect by using iron smelted from the foul or copper.- bearing slags is very important. Some samples of smelter-slag produced in commercial operation by others have contained as much as nine-tenths per cent. of copper, sixteen per cent. of iron, and eighty-three per cent. of lime and other bases. The metal product obtained by smelting such slag according to my said invention will consist approximately of ninety-four and one-half per cent. iron and five and one-half per cent. copper, or, say, one hundred and ten pounds of copper per ton of granulated iron. Other slags, such as those produced in New Mexico byold Spanish smelting-furnaces, contain a still larger percentage of copper, all of which may be recovered by the practice of my invention.

Those skilled in the art may vary the details of my invention without departing from the spirit of it, since What I claim is 1. The method herein described of recovering values from water containing copper in solution, which consists in passing such water through successive vessels containing iron and causing it to drop from one vessel to the other; substantially as described.

2. The method herein described of recovering values from water containing copper in solution, which consists in passing such water in contact with iron containing copper, whereby copper in the water is precipitated and copper in the iron is simultaneously liberated; substantially as described.

3. The method herein described of recovering values which consists in smelting ferruginous copper-bearing smelter-slag, comminuting the product, and bringing it into contact with Water containing copper in solution; substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

RALPH BAGGALEY. Witnesses:

J. H. REED,

THoMAs W. BAKEWELL.

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